


Bird School: For Birds.

by IlanaNight



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Still Have Powers, M/M, Sibling Bonding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-05
Updated: 2019-01-05
Packaged: 2019-10-04 12:36:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,123
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17304761
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IlanaNight/pseuds/IlanaNight
Summary: Maybe Taako shouldn't have played hookie on the day group projects were assigned. And maybe he really shouldn't be staring at the goth boy he'd been stuck with as a partner. And MAYBE that goth kid shouldn't be so STUPID CUTE while he's STUDYING.





	Bird School: For Birds.

**Author's Note:**

  * For [MarionetteArtist](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MarionetteArtist/gifts).



> This fic was written as part of the #tazcandlenights2018 gift exchange for marionetteartist!

So, maybe playing hookie with his sister on the day of group assignments hadn’t been the best idea. But, in Taako’s defense, he was  _ sure  _ no one else would be out that day- which would mean he and Lup could team up, the power duo they always were. It had been a foolproof plan- he and Lup got to go pick out outfits for the Winter Formal before anyone else even considered shopping, and he didn’t have to worry about getting paired up with some loser once he got back.

 

But Istus had it out for him today, or something.

 

“I’m afraid you missed picking groups yesterday- but on the plus side, we had two other students out sick, so I’ve matched you both into pairs.”

 

“Aw, sweet- thanks teach. Lup and I’ll get right on that project!” Taako turned on his heel, ready to head back to his seat, but a clearing throat behind him stopped him.

 

“Actually, Taako. Your partner is Kravitz. And Lup will be working with Barry- I thought it would be nice if you both got an outside perspective this time around- maybe you’ll get to learn something new.”

 

“ _ Uh,  _ what? You mean, given the chance to pair people who  _ live together  _ and  _ keep the same schedule,  _ you didn’t? You made it so we have to work around two other schedules? Isn’t that uh. A little, inefficient, teach?”

 

She gave a little chuckle, smiling at Taako in a way that said she knew exactly what she was doing, “One of the most important part of group projects is learning how to work with other people, Taako. If I just wanted to read papers, I wouldn’t assign groups at all.”

 

Taako rolled his eyes, making a disgruntled noise in the back of his throat and throwing his arms up in a shrug, “Alright. Fine. Whatever. Learning people skills, blah blah blah you just don’t want another dynamic duo presentation showing everyone up.”

 

“I’m sure your project will be wonderful, Taako. Now please, take a seat so I can get ready to start class.”

 

Harrumphing again, Taako headed toward the back of the classroom, sprawling out in a chair and watching as Lup proceeded to have  _ basically  _ the same argument. While it didn’t qualm his own disappointment, it was kinda gratifying to see Lup going through the same five stages of grief.

 

“So I see you’re stuck with the  _ nerd,  _ huh?” 

 

Lup stuck her tongue out at him, checking that the teacher wasn’t looking before flipping him off and sitting down next to him, “Better the nerd than the weird goth kid. Kravitz sits with a bunch of  _ birds  _ at lunch like they’re his friends. You’re gonna get sacrificed or somethin’, broski.”

“Psh. I could take him and some birds and you know it. I’m just gonna get it over with as fast as possible- my time is precious and I can’t just be expected to work around someone else’s schedule.”

 

A polite cough interrupted Taako from the side and he turned, looking ready to snap, “Uh- yes? What do you need?”

 

His eyes met Kravitz’s, and he could see just in that glance that the half-elf was shaken up, hands clasped and wringing each other as he found the courage to speak, “Hey-hello. I. Well. You see. We’re partners and. I wanted to. Have a way to contact you and. So I figured we could. Attune our stones? If that works for you?”

 

Lup’s laughter erupted from beside him and Taako watched as the other boy shirked back as far as he could while still holding his stone out in front of him. Sighing, he took his own out, grabbing Kravitz’s right out of his hand, “Yea. I’ll text you when I’m free- I’m a real busy bee, buddy, and we gotta work around that, y’feel me?”

 

“Of course. Naturally. I understand that. I. Well I’m usually free after school so. I’ll be happy to work whenever you want.”

 

“Great. See ya later, Kravvy.”

 

His eyes narrowed as he took his stone back, a little affronted, “Uh- it’s. It’s Kravitz, actually.”

 

“Oh, yeah. I know.”

 

Finished with that conversation, Taako turned away, watching Kravitz walk away out of the corner of his eye to sit back towards the front of the classroom, slumped in his chair. Before he realized it, he was actually looking at the back of Kravitz’s head, noting the box braids pulled up into an intricate ponytail. 

 

And then a folder smacked across his desk.

 

“Hello? Earth to Taako? We gotta take notes or we’re gonna get  _ fucked  _ by the exam. You okay?”

 

“Oh. Yeah. Sorry. Just spacing out about the project, you know how it is when I don’t get my way.”

 

Snickering, Lup handed him a pen from her multicolored stack and went back to writing as he started copying the information from the powerpoint.

* * *

  
  
  


Right-after-school time was reserved for prepping whatever they’d be having for dinner- emancipation was cool and all, but it also meant they had to scrounge up food more often than they’d like to let anyone at school believe. But Taako and Lup were good at making their teenage side jobs and favors pay out to enough to get by- with a bit of  _ help  _ every now and again.

 

But once dinner was prepped and stewing, or just waiting to be heated up when they actually felt like eating, there was nothing left for Taako to do except homework. And unfortunately, no homework that needed more doing than the presentation.

 

Taking out his stone, he sighed, typing out a quick message.

 

[txt: Goth Bird] Hey. U free?

 

[txt: Taako] Um. For the most part, yes. I just finished a lesson, but once I get home and put my viola away I’m free.

 

[txt: Goth Bird] Viola huh? Is that like. A goth violin? 

 

[txt: Taako] Just a bigger one. Nothing more goth about it in general- but mine is stained black, so I suppose it is.

 

[txt: Goth Bird] Yeah. That’s definitely goth, buddy. Anyway. Meet me at the library so we can figure out who’s doing what and get this shit done as soon as possible.

 

[txt: Taako] Oh. Alright. I’ll see you in about a half hour?

 

[txt: Goth Bird] Sure. Whatever. Soon as you can.

 

Sitting up in bed with a sigh, Taako tossed his tablet, a notebook, and some pencils into a shoulder bag, heading for the door, “I’ll be back- gotta go meet the goth at the library.”

 

“Keep your phone on! I don’t wanna find you surrounded by crows in an alley somewhere, dingus.”

 

“Yea, yeah. Don’t let denim nerd into my room if he comes over to work on your project, kay? I can’t risk him discovering other fabrics.”

 

Lup laughed, hiding her mouth behind her hand and flipping her braid over her shoulder, “I dunno, maybe we’ll do our whole project in your room… Everything he touches turns to denim, y’know.”

 

“Die, Lup de Lup! Don’t even joke about that, and  _ especially  _ not like that. Ugh. I’m out!”

 

Hearing her laugh him out the door, Taako flipped her the bird as he shut it behind him, shouldering his bag and heading out the door to the library.

* * *

  
  


It wasn’t a long walk to the library- fifteen minutes max, but Taako was  _ not  _ gonna be the one waiting around at the library like a nerd. So he stopped by a little market on the way there, grabbing some pastries and a cup of champurrado to keep him going through the session. And having finished that excursion, he meandered the rest of the way to the library, morphing one of his rings over and over idly into different gemstones and designs.

 

The library in sight, Taako could also see Kravitz leaning up against a pillar outside. And wow, being surrounded by twerps and actual nerds did the goth wonders- or maybe it was the colored light from the stained glass windows of the library, or the fact that he’d taken his braids down out of the ponytail and tied them back behind his neck instead. Because Taako felt  _ something  _ in his throat and it wasn’t the annoyance he’d been dealing with all day.

 

Man, he really needed to get a date to the winter formal- was he  _ really  _ even considering this? No. Absolutely not. 

 

“Sup, homie? You just gonna chill against that pole or you wanna head inside?”

 

Seeming a little startled, Kravitz laughed and brushed a couple of his braids back behind his ear, nodding, “I just didn’t want to sit down without you- in case there was a favorite place of yours.”

 

“What kind of  _ nerd  _ has a favorite seat in the library? C’mon buddy.”

 

Taako couldn’t help but notice the nervousness that had all rushed back into Kravitz- all of the ease he’d exuded leaning up against the pillar gone in favor of almost tripping over himself to follow after him. And then he noticed that he was paying Kravitz a little too much attention again and made a point of not looking at the other boy as he found them a table in a back corner of the library.

 

“In my defense, Taako, you did make a rather straight shot for this corner- so it appears you  _ might  _ actually have a favorite seat in the library. Or at least a favorite general area.”

 

Taako turned, affronted, but he was paused in his snippy come back by the expression on Kravitz’s face- something almost mischievous, but with that anxiety still very present. Like the other boy had steeled all of his nerves to make one risky statement.

 

What a  _ fucking  _ **_nerd._ **

 

Whiplash comeback timing lost, Taako just scoffed and nudged Kravitz toward a chair, sprawling across his own and taking out his tablet, “I just don’t wanna be seen here, Kravvy. I’ve got a reputation to uphold: beautiful, stunning, popular, and able to ace every single one of my classes without ever so much as opening a book, because I can’t fuckin read.”

 

Kravitz laughed at that statement, hiding the sound behind his hand and evening it out to a cough, but Taako was certain he heard a laugh there to start, and there was definitely a smile in Kravitz’s eyes- which weren’t brown, he realized. They were red- a deep sort of red- and he was staring at Kravitz again.  _ Yeesh,  _ he needed to get it together.

 

Shaking himself out of  _ that  _ train of thought, Taako laid out the instructions of the project, spearheading them into splitting up the work and starting some of the basics of research. It was much easier not to stare at Kravitz when he was staring at a book or a site on his tablet.

 

But then he made the mistake of looking up to ask a question, and catching sight of Kravitz chewing on the back end of a pencil, looking down at the book on the table with a concentrated furrow to his brow. And boy was it a mistake, because suddenly the tips of his ears felt like they were burning? For no reason whatsoever.

 

“Hey. I’m gonna grab a water from the little kiosk at the desk, do you want anything?”

 

Looking up from the book, pencil still in mouth, Kravitz shook his head with a little smile before taking it out, “No- thank you, though. I’m quite alright.”

 

Getting up from the table, Taako started a lap around the library, sighing and sliding behind an aisle of books towards the entrance, grabbing his stone, and calling Lup in an aggravated whisper.

 

“What the fuck is wrong with me?”

 

“Uh, you want an itemized list, buddy? I could start, but we’ve got a whole  _ lifetime  _ of issues to get through and you’re not ready for that.”

 

“Shut up- I’ve got a list for you too, what the fuck? Anyway, not what I meant. Why do I keep  _ staring at him?” _

 

“At the  _ goth kid?”  _ Lup’s laugh was crackly over the stone, but Taako could hear it all the same, and he groaned as quietly as he could, running a hand over his face.

 

“Yeah. At Kravitz. It’s  _ killing  _ me, Lup. Why is he  _ cute?”  _

 

She whistled over the line, giggling again before Taako could shush her, “Cute, huh? Well! That sounds like you’ve got yourself a problem, broski! Why don’t you kiss him about it?”

 

“Lup! I can’t just-” But the line went dead at that, Lup laughing all the way until the click of the stone shutting down. “Fuck.”

 

Still sitting on the floor, Taako sighed, running a hand through his hair and rebraiding it to try and deal with some of the energy swirling in his chest before heading over to actually get himself a water.

* * *

  
  


After taking maybe a little too long to come back, Taako wandered back over to the table, pausing a little ways away to watch Kravitz studiously transferring notes, left hand keeping his place on the book while his right wrote feverishly. 

 

Not wanting to spook him again, he cleared his throat as he came back to the table, “Sorry- sis called, sibling drama, you know how it is.”

 

“No need to apologize- you two are close. Is she alright, or should you be heading home?”

 

Kravitz had only looked up to smile politely, still writing, and Taako sighed, still fighting the feelings but feeling more and more of himself giving in the longer he sat here.

 

“She’s fine- we’re making pretty sweet progress and I wanna keep at that, y’know?”

 

“Mmhm,” Kravitz nodded, already engrossed in his work again, concern abandoned once Taako assured him Lup was alright, and Taako steeled himself to try and get back into researching too. 

 

Instead of just watching Kravitz do research, as cute- _ motherfucker-  _ as that was.

* * *

  
  


It added a little time to his process, sure, but Taako eventually did get enough notes down to ensure he wouldn’t have to come back to the library for this project, at least. And only with occasional glances thrown over at the half-elf across from him, to Taako’s credit.

 

The lights going off in the study rooms of the library clued Taako into the time, and he cleared his throat, trying to pull Kravitz from his studies.

 

“Huh-oh. Oh dear, it’s rather late, isn’t it?” Kravitz blinked in surprise, looking around at the mostly-empty library, everyone else packing up or tidying shelves to end the day. 

 

“Uh, yeah. I’d say so. Sun set like. A couple hours ago, buddy,” Taako snickered, trying to keep that same aloof air he’d had only those same few hours ago, but it was hard with how flustered Kravitz seemed to be at the loss of time, “Not enough to get kicked out of the library like  _ super  _ nerds though, so long as we get out quick.”

 

“Right. Yes- of course,” Kravitz scrambled to pick things up, sighing at the sheer mass of pages in front of him and grabbing a baton out of his bag. Taako watched with surprise as he waved the baton, whispering under his breath, and the pages all realigned themselves in his notebook, neat and tidy.

 

“Oh, you  _ gotta  _ show me  _ that  _ cantrip, buddy. I’d  _ love  _ to never have to actually clean my room again, holy shit.”

 

Laughing, Kravitz slipped the baton back into his pocket, shrugging, “It’s not so hard, really. My mother taught it to me- for much that same reason, actually. She got tired of pestering me to clean up.”

 

There was something warm in Kravitz’s expression and voice that Taako couldn’t put a name to, but it had that same tickle catching in his throat, and he was quick to hide it behind a smile and a laugh, grinning, “Good- shouldn’t be hard for me either, then. And I can flex on Lup whenever she has to  _ actually  _ clean up. Sucker.”

 

Kravitz laughed again, and Taako joined in with him, grabbing the rest of his stuff and dumping it in to the shoulder bag as they headed toward the front door of the library.

 

Before Taako could get to the door, Kravitz slid around him to open it, gesturing for Taako, “You first.”

 

“And here they told me chivalry was dead when I said I wanted a man who would lay his coat down on puddles for me,” the statement was  _ almost  _ entirely a joke, but Taako didn’t miss the shock in Kravitz’s eyes and the darkening of his cheeks.  _ Score.  _

 

“Uh-I-uh. Well. It’s not raining but. If you ever need a coat- I’ve always got one.”

 

Well,  _ fuck,  _ now it was his turn to blush. How the  _ fuck  _ did this nerdy goth manage to make stumbling through statements as cute as he did?

 

Determined to get the upper hand- and thus abandoning all of his qualms about having feelings for this nerd in the first place- Taako turned on his heel once they were outside, hip cocked to the side as he looked down at Kravitz, “I hear it might rain tomorrow.”

 

The half-elf blinked, tucking a braid behind his ear again, visibly confused, “Uh. Yea? Maybe? It has been a pretty wet season… And it’s pretty cloudy today- so maybe, it might. Why are you mentioning-ohm.”

 

Taako couldn’t handle that cute, long winded explanation and nervous rambling any longer. He leant in close, so close he had to cross his eyes to look at Kravitz properly, a grin on his face, “Wanna take me to dinner? Put your money where your mouth is on that whole coat-and-puddles debate?”

 

This close, Taako could practically  _ feel  _ the nerves pouring off Kravitz in waves, his breath and heart rate both speeding up, audible to the elf and visible at Kravitz’s pulse point.

 

“Do-uh. Oh. Pardon. Do you mean this.. As a date?”

 

“ _ Duh.  _ What the fuck? Why else would I be asking you  _ like this,  _ Kravvy? C’mon.”

 

“I-. Yes? Yes, I mean. No questions, certainly, I’d be honored- more than honored, actually, to get to-”

 

And again, that nervous rambling. But this time, Taako had a yes, and had more than enough reason to take that as a go ahead, kissing Kravitz quickly before pulling back with a smirk.

 

“See ya tomorrow then, bird boy. Text me- I’ll tell you where to pick me up.”

 

Kravitz’s eyes were wide with shock, but there was a smile on his face, so Taako didn’t feel too bad as he walked away, smiling when the half elf yelled after him.

 

“Of course! I’m looking forward to it!”

 

Taako was too- but he wasn’t going to yell it back across the parking lot. Just smile to himself, that warmth in his chest creeping outwards until he felt like he was floating.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! If you liked it, hop over to tumblr and drop me a line! http://ilananight.tumblr.com


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